Even though the bilingual box office smash Bon Cop, Bad Cop and the drama Un dimanche à Kigali / A Sunday in Kigali received the most nominations – 12 apiece – both were completely shut out of the film, acting, directing, and writing categories.

Instead, the comedy-drama Congorama came out on top as best film of 2006, in addition to wins for best director (Philippe Falardeau, right), best screenplay (also Falardeau), best actor (double winners Paul Ahmarani and Olivier Gourmet), and best supporting actor (Gabriel Arcand). Overall, Congorama won five of its six nominations. (André Turpin lost in the best cinematography category to Pierre Mignot – his third Jutra in a row – for Un dimanche à Kigali.)

“This is one I didn’t see coming,” Falardeau told the audience at Montreal’s Place des Arts after winning the best director Jutra. “It’s just like a bus that came out of nowhere.”

A Can$5 million Franco-Belgian-Canadian production, Congorama follows a Belgian inventor (Gourmet) who, after discovering that he was adopted, travels to Quebec to learn about his family background. Following a car accident, he and a mentally unbalanced inventor (Ahmarani) experience a number of unusual adventures. The film had its world premiere at the Cannes Film Festival‘s Directors Fortnight last year.

Though a major hit among film critics, Congorama failed to ignite Quebec’s box office. Earlier in February, it won a single Genie – for best original screenplay (unlike the Jutras, the Genies have two writing categories) – at the Canadian Academy Awards ceremony. (This year’s Genies were dominated by another Quebec-made film, Maurice Richard / The Rocket, which was up for last year’s Jutras.)

In spite of the Congorama sweep in the top categories, Un dimanche à Kigali was actually the most honored production, winning a total of six Jutras. Bon Cop, Bad Cop won only one – for best editing (Jean-François Bergeron) – in addition to a Billet d’Or as the top-grossing Québécois film of the year.

Céline Bonnier (above) was chosen best actress for her performance as an ex-con in Délivrez-moi. Fanny Malette was the best supporting actress for her suicidal escort in Cheech.

Another Jutra surprise was the choice for the “most illustrious (Quebec-made) film outside Quebec,” which went – for the second year in a row – to Jean-Marc Vallée’s 2005 box office smash C.R.A.Z.Y., a touching comedy-drama about a young gay man growing up in the Montreal of the 1960s and 1970s.

C.R.A.Z.Y. swept both the Jutras and the Genies last year, and it has been sold to dozens of countries around the world. Inexplicably – much too good for American audiences? – it hasn’t been released theatrically in the United States, though it has popped up on cable.

As an aside … I find it curious that, at least online, the English-language Canadian media has devoted precious little space to the Jutras.

Genie Awards Winners: Good Cop Bad Cop Flick Tops

Last night, the Canadian Academy’s Genie Awards ceremony proved itself no more and no less prone to inane outcomes than those of other film academies the world over. Nine Genies went to the Quebecois hockey biopic The Rocket / Maurice Richard, including awards for Best Director (Charles Binamé), Best Actor (Roy Dupuis), Best Actress (Julie Le Breton), and Best Editing (Michel Arcand). Canadian Academy-ites, however, opted for the bilingual comedy-thriller Bon Cop, Bad Cop as Best Canadian Film of 2006.

Whether Bon Cop, Bad Cop is bon or bad, I don’t know as I haven’t seen the film. But one would expect that the “best Canadian film of 2006” would have received top honors in another category other than best sound. In any case, no one will be able to accuse the Canadian Academy of being an elitist body that favors obscure films – at least until next year.

Bon Cop, Bad Cop, after all, has become the biggest homemade box office smash in Canada’s history, and one more piece of evidence proving that le cinéma Québécois is the engine propelling the Canadian film industry. In fact, Quebec-made films seem to be not only the engine, but just about the whole train.

In addition to Bon Cop, Bad Cop and Maurice Richard, other films out of Quebec that earned Genies last night include Robert Favreau’s Un dimanche à Kigali / A Sunday in Kigali, which won the best original screenplay award (for Favreau and Gil Courtemanche); Congorama, for best adapted screenplay (Philippe Falardeau); and Sans elle / Without Her, winner of the best score award (for Jean Robitaille). Also, it should be noted that four of the five best film nominees came out of Quebec.

The winners of Quebec’s Prix Jutra will be announced on Feb. 18. Don’t expect Maurice Richard to win anything. The hockey film was included in last year’s Jutra shortlist – it lost in every category, mostly to the local box office sensation C.R.A.Z.Y., a Quebecois drama about a young gay man growing up in the Montreal of the 1960s and 1970s. C.R.A.Z.Y. also swept the 2006 Genies.

Le cinéma Québécois rules. Why? It helps to have a generous government willing to support the arts – and it helps to speak French. Instead of being swallowed whole by mega-budget Hollywood trash so beloved by the braindead everywhere, the Quebec film industry has been able to create its own highly successful cultural identity – or “identities,” considering the variety of locally produced films. As they say, Vive la difference…

More details on several of the films mentioned above can be found in the 2007 Genie nominations article.

27th Genie Awards- 2006

The 27th Genie Award nominees were announced on January 9, 2007.

The 27th Genie Award winners were announced at The Carlu atop Torontos College Park on February 13, 2007.

The 2007 London Film Critics’ Circle Award winners were announced this evening at a ceremony held in aid of the National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children at the Dorchester Hotel.

London Film Critics’ Awards chair Marianne Gray stated that The Queen – winner of the best British film, best British director (Stephen Frears), best British actress (Helen Mirren), and best screenplay (Peter Morgan) awards – “symbolizes everything that is right with the British film industry at the moment and it is great to see that it can compete with the best that Hollywood can offer.”

The Queen was also in the running for the Film of the Year award, but despite its symbolizing “everything that is right with the British film industry” the royal drama lost out to United 93.

The most intriguing aspect of the London critics’ top-film pick is that United 93 also happens to be a British production – even if set aboard an American plane. Paul Greengrass, Tim Bevan, and Eric Fellner were, in fact, voted best British producers of the year – even though their film failed to win a place among the nominees for best British film of 2006. Go figure.

Greengrass was also voted best director, while American performers Forest Whitaker (in the British-made The Last King of Scotland) and Meryl Streep (in The Devil Wears Prada) were chosen best actor and best actress.

Helen Mirren, invincible on this side of the Atlantic, has fared considerably less well in Britain. Besides losing out to Meryl Streep, Mirren has also lost best actress awards to Judi Dench (for Notes on a Scandal) at the Evening Standard British Film Awards, and to Kate Dickie (for Red Road) at the British Independent Film Awards. (In Britain, they have fewer film honors than in the U.S. That I’m aware of, there’s no award-giving Cornwall Film Critics Society or Manchester Film Critics Association.)

Michael Caine (for a minor role in The Prestige) and Emily Blunt (for her popular scenery-chewing in The Devil Wears Prada) were voted best British supporting players. (There’s no “best [international] supporting player” category.)

In addition to Streep’s well-deserved recognition – even though hers is in fact a supporting performance – the other good news from the London Critics was the choice of Pedro Almodóvar’s Volver as best foreign language film of the year.

Volver, which has just won the Spanish Academy’s Goya Awards for best film and best director, has done excellent business in Britain.

Now, the London critics clearly love Hollywood fare. Since its inception in 1980, only eight Film of the Year awards have gone to non-American productions, five of which were British. Of the other three, Babe, The Piano, and Paris, Texas, one (Babe) had some American financing while another was set in the United States (Paris, Texas). No production in a language other than English has thus far been chosen Film of the Year.

A few 2005 American releases that arrived in Britain only last year made the London Film Critics’ nominations cut, among them Good Night and Good Luck., Capote, and The Squid and the Whale. But since we’re now in 2007, they were apparently deemed passé. Even Philip Seymour Hoffman’s Capote, the favorite among the favorites of 2005, lost the best actor award to this year’s favorite among favorites, Forest Whitaker.

In fact, the new and the newsworthy received the bulk of the London critics’ attention. With the exception of Infamous (best British actor Toby Jones) and Red Road (best British newcomer Andrea Arnold), every winning film at the London critics’ ceremony is up for some Academy Award or other.

Best British Director
Andrea Arnold, Red Road.* Stephen Frears, The Queen.Christopher Nolan, The Prestige.
Kevin Macdonald, The Last King of Scotland.Ken Loach, The Wind That Shakes the Barley.

Best ActorJeff Daniels, The Squid and the Whale.
Philip Seymour Hoffman, Capote.Richard Griffiths, The History Boys.
David Strathairn, Good Night, and Good Luck..* Forest Whitaker, The Last King of Scotland.

Helen Mirren tops ‘London Evening Standard’ Awards

As The Queen, Helen Mirren has brought back to her castle just about every best actress award in the United States. Ironically, she hasn’t fared all that well in Britain. First, she lost to Kate Dickie (Red Road) at the 2006 British Independent Film Awards and now she’s lost the Evening Standard Award to Judi Dench’s lonely, conniving lesbian teacher in Notes on a Scandal.

As far as the 2007 Academy Awards are concerned, there’s no suspense in the best actress category. Barring a meteor crashing into Earth during the Oscar ceremony, Helen Mirren will leave the Kodak Theater with one of those elongated androgynous statuettes in hand.

In her home turf, however, Mirren’s position is more precarious. Although I’d say she’s the favorite at the British Academy of Film awards (Kate Dickie is not in the running, though Judi Dench is), Mirren doesn’t have her name already engraved on the best actress Bafta statuette.

Personally, I think that Judi Dench’s win is not only deserving – she evokes empathy for a potential villainess – but also welcome. Last year’s films showcased numerous actresses in top form (e.g., Mirren, Dench, Penélope Cruz, Kate Winslet, Annette Bening, Meryl Streep), but U.S. critics, guilds, and Golden Globers – ever the victims of Groupthink Disease – opted to praise the same actress (and oftentimes the same actor, the same two or three films, the same two or three screenplays, and so on) ad nauseam. With her Evening Standard win, Judi Dench has had her work – which is just as flawless as Mirren’s – finally recognized by an award-giving group.

Other Evening Standard winners were best film United 93, best screenplay for Peter Morgan for both The Queen and The Last King of Scotland (actually co-written with Jeremy Brock), best comedian Sacha Baron Cohen for Borat, a technical award to cinematographer Anthony Dod Mantle for The Last King of Scotland and Brothers of the Head (above, with Harry Treadaway and Luke Treadaway), and a special award to Stephen Frears “for making British film reverberate around the world.”

And finally, the other big surprise at the Evening Standard awards was Daniel Craig’s best actor win for the dismal (but widely praised) Casino Royale. Craig must have won the award for keeping a straight face while telling friends and foes that he’s bondjamesbond, while chasing a mad terrorist at the airport, while having his balls busted, while … I’d better stop here.

Best Film: United 93 directed by Paul Greengrass

Best Actor: Daniel Craig, Casino Royale

Best Actress: Judi Dench, Notes on a Scandal

Best Screenplay: Peter Morgan, The Queen and The Last King of Scotland

Strangely, although it failed to get nominated in the Best Director (Ken Loach) and Best Screenplay (Paul Haverty) categories, 2006 Cannes winnerThe Wind That Shakes the Barley was chosen as the Best Irish Film at the 2007 Irish Film & Television Academy Awards ceremony held on February 9, 2007, in Dublin.

Starring Cillian Murphy and Padraic Delaney, The Wind That Shakes the Barley follows members of the Irish Republican Army as they fight the British in the early 20th century. Liam Cunningham, as a train driver who becomes an activist, was selected as the year’s Best Supporting Actor. Other The Wind That Shakes the Barley cast members include Orla Fitzgerald, Mary O’Riordan, Mary Murphy, Laurence Barry, Damien Kearney, and Frank Bourke.

Cillian Murphy, for his part, was the winner of the Best Actor Irish Film Award – but not for The Wind That Shakes the Barley. Instead, Murphy was honored for his performance as a transvestite cabaret singer in Neil Jordan’s sociopolitical comedy-drama Breakfast on Pluto. Additionally, Breakfast on Pluto received three other Irish Film Awards: Best Director, Best Screenplay (Jordan and Pat McCabe), and Best Hair and Make-Up.

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1 comment

toby -

i rike maurice richard
and i have no family
or friends
i have a level 65 tauren druid
on world of warcraft
his talent is feral
i am exellent
iv never had a girlfriend
and never kissed a girl
exept my mom..
and i live with my parents still

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